The prophet spoke for God to the people, essentially as Yahweh’s messenger to his vassal nation. The priests maintained and facilitated the cultic system. The job description of the priest was to represent the people to God via mediation and sacrifice. Staffed by human representatives, these were the prophet, the priest, and the king. So how did God set up his theocratic nation? Deuteronomy 17:14–18:22 tells us that there were three theocratic offices established in the Sinai covenant. Many of the perennially perplexing moral questions that arise between the Old and New Covenants derive from a misunderstanding of this one concept. This is an extremely important piece of the theological puzzle when one attempts to understand the nature of the Mosaic Covenant, the monarchy, and how these Old Testament realities relate to the New Testament. And Israel’s political interests were God’s political interests.
Because of this, Israel’s enemies were God’s enemies. But as Israel was, indeed, “ruled by God” this means that Israel’s territory was actually God’s territory.
I find that many Christians are surprised to hear the term “kingdom of God” applied to the Old Testament. This means that Israel, from the days of the settlement through the exile, was indeed the kingdom of God on earth. Yahweh was enthroned in the Holy of Holies, “above the cherubim.” Here God does what all kings do: he meets with his people, adjudicates legislative issues, receives tribute, and decrees policy. Not symbolically or metaphorically, but actually ruled by God. Thus, a “theocracy” is a government ruled by God. What is a theocracy? The word is actually two words: theos + kratos (< kratew) meaning god + rule.
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